Butter Tarts

[chromedome]

LOL In an earlier edition of Bo Friberg's "Professional Pastry Chef," he apparently suggested raisins as a perfectly compatible addition to American-style brownies, which were a novelty to him. In the fourth edition, he ruefully observed that he "hadn't been in that much trouble since he'd used someone's fabric scissors to cut paper."

I'd recently experienced the latter trauma myself, and found the quote correspondingly amusing. 

[kayb]

I must cast my lot with @Tri2Cook and go along with @Kerry Beal's cited article. No raisins in my butter tart, which looks a whole lot like what my Grandmama used to make and call a chess pie.

 

"...Raisins are the husks of grapes that have gone to hell." About the most apt description I've heard. I will make an exception for the yogurt-covered ones.

[JohnT]

9 hours ago, chromedome said:

Muffin-pan tartlets are the default for home bakers. Individual shells in foil tartlet pans is the commonest "take" commercially, from what I've seen. 

 

Yes, I am aware of that. However, the reason for the use of the foil tartlet pans is that the shells are pressed out in them mechanically and I do not have a press to do it. So, I will do what I always do when I want a few tartlets - use my hands and give them a "rustic" look . It must be remembered that this is just an experiment as I have never come across a "butter tart" before.

[Anna N]

4 hours ago, JohnT said:

 

Yes, I am aware of that. However, the reason for the use of the foil tartlet pans is that the shells are pressed out in them mechanically and I do not have a press to do it. So, I will do what I always do when I want a few tartlets - use my hands and give them a "rustic" look . It must be remembered that this is just an experiment as I have never come across a "butter tart" before.

 Rustic is exactly the way I think a well-made butter tart should look.  I am not recommending these other than for their looks.  When I think of them this is what I see

Click

[Beebs]

18 hours ago, kayb said:

I must cast my lot with @Tri2Cook and go along with @Kerry Beal's cited article. No raisins in my butter tart, which looks a whole lot like what my Grandmama used to make and call a chess pie.

 

"...Raisins are the husks of grapes that have gone to hell." About the most apt description I've heard. I will make an exception for the yogurt-covered ones.

 

Send me your hell grapes - I put extra raisins in mine! 

[Soupcon]

No raisins in my butter tarts either and the filling must be runny. None of this set filling stuff. Runny enough that when you take a bite you need a plate underneath (or your hand to lick afterwards) to catch the drips. 

[Kerry Beal]

Hubby, rug rat and I went up to Fergus, Ontario today for the "Love of Buttertarts and Chocolate Fest". A whole lot of other people had the same idea - we arrived before the worst of the crowds however. Before the child lost it with all the noise - we did manage to pick up a couple of half dozens of butter tarts - one with pecans, one plain (no raisins however -  but there were lots available).

 

 

 

There were not a ton of butter tart vendors - and only two chocolate vendors that I could see - lots of folks with geegaws though. I could have cleaned up with a table selling chocolate dipped this and that.

 

 

[Lisa Shock]

59 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

Hubby, rug rat and I went up to Fergus, Ontario today for the "Love of Buttertarts and Chocolate Fest". A whole lot of other people had the same idea - we arrived before the worst of the crowds however. Before the child lost it with all the noise - we did manage to pick up a couple of half dozens of butter tarts - one with pecans, one plain (no raisins however -  but there were lots available).

 

 

 

There were not a ton of butter tart vendors - and only two chocolate vendors that I could see - lots of folks with geegaws though. I could have cleaned up with a table selling chocolate dipped this and that.

 

 

 

I wonder what the shelf life of a chocolate dipped mini-butter tart is...

[caroled]

@Lisa Shock, 'bout 3 seconds!!

[Anna N]

 I love that they look exactly as they should. Rustic.

[ElsieD]

God, I love butter tarts, whether with or without nuts or raisins.  I particularly love the non-runny ones.  Wish I had a really good recipe.

[Anna N]

2 hours ago, ElsieD said:

God, I love butter tarts, whether with or without nuts or raisins.  I particularly love the non-runny ones.  Wish I had a really good recipe.

A non-runny buttertart?  Where is the sport in that?

[Kerry Beal]

 

Ran into one of the hospital volunteers at the Fest yesterday - today she brought in two of the packages she bought for the nurses. I guess there were more vendors than we noticed - apparently they were all in the aisle that we had serious trouble getting the rugrat's wheel chair down easily. We spent the whole time looking for space between people to move forward and ignored the stuff around us!

 

Notice the only one with ingredients doesn't list butter?

[caroled]

I did notice that and all the recipes I've seen don't seem to call for all that much butter. For so little needed, it looks like you'd go for the real stuff.

 

Said by the person that is forever looking up and collecting recipes for them and still never getting round to making them.

[Kerry Beal]

4 hours ago, caroled said:

I did notice that and all the recipes I've seen don't seem to call for all that much butter. For so little needed, it looks like you'd go for the real stuff.

 

Said by the person that is forever looking up and collecting recipes for them and still never getting round to making them.

My mother's best recipe for butter tarts uses hard margarine in place of butter. It makes a filling that is less likely to boil over. 

[catdaddy]

7 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

My mother's best recipe for butter tarts uses hard margarine in place of butter. It makes a filling that is less likely to boil over. 

What is "hard margarine"?

[Kerry Beal]

17 minutes ago, catdaddy said:

What is "hard margarine"?

The stuff that comes looking like a pound of butter instead of in a tub.

 

like this

[FauxPas]

I last made butter tarts a couple of months ago, but can't even remember what I put in them. I have a photo of them, for some reason. Pretty sure some of them had nuts. I had a friend who gave me her mom's recipe, which might have had currants instead of raisins, but I know I didn't do that. I do like a thick pastry shell, not too gooey because it's a pain to try and eat them on the go and I like them to be portable. 

 

[kayb]

I looked at several recipes and the filling looks for all the world like what we call down here a chess pie. 

 

My mother used to be fond of telling how she'd made two chess pies for a church pot luck, and put them on the kitchen table to cool. Came back through the kitchen to find me, at about age 3, sitting atop the table, with a big knife, having whacked a chunk out of one pie that I was busy stuffing in my face, and having marked a chunk in the other pie that I planned to cut next.

 

I do not remember this stellar incident of good taste. But she swore it was true.

[caroled]

@kayb, a Southern girl after my own heart!

 

[JohnT]

On 11 June 2018 at 3:38 PM, Kerry Beal said:

 

Ran into one of the hospital volunteers at the Fest yesterday - today she brought in two of the packages she bought for the nurses. I guess there were more vendors than we noticed - apparently they were all in the aisle that we had serious trouble getting the rugrat's wheel chair down easily. We spent the whole time looking for space between people to move forward and ignored the stuff around us!

 

Notice the only one with ingredients doesn't list butter?

Yes, and the warning states it contains soy and milk – but the ingredients label does not list either of those ingredients!